Who Fic - Live In Concert 1/3
Title: Live In Concert 1/3
Fandom: Doctor Who/Lost
Characters: Rose Tyler, Nine, Ten, Jack Harkness, Charlie Pace, Mickey Smith
Rating/Warnings: PG, very vague drug and sexual references
Spoilers: everything up to The Idiots Lantern is fair game
Summary: Desmond isn’t the only time traveler that Charlie Pace ran into during his time as a rock star. Two different Doctors and two different reasons bring Rose Tyler into his life.
Disclaimer: Lost and Doctor Who don’t belong to me. Duh.
~*~
“Rose Tyler - what in the whole wide universe are you listening to?”
Rose grinned up at Jack from her upside-down vantage point. He was lounging in her doorway, all cocky and teasing. With the blood rushing to her head making her distinctly light headed and the absurdity of Jack’s stance from her position it was making her overly giggly.
“DriveShaft,” she waved the CD case lazily at him and Jack smirked.
“Gee - phallic much?”
“Oh you love it,” Rose poked her tongue out at him and then rolled onto her stomach. “S’a British band. My friend Mickey used to love them. Went to loads of their concerts back in the day.”
“He ever take you?”
Rose pulled a face. “Tried once but I wasn’t eighteen yet and my fake ID was a bit dodgy.”
“We should go!” Jack said, pulling her to her feet enthusiastically. “I’m in the mood for some more dancing.”
“They aren’t exactly a dance band,” Rose eyed the beaten up CD player she had scavenged from her bedroom back home on their last trip to the Powell Estate. “More like, ‘let’s all go and head bang in the mosh pit till we’re sick’.”
“I like head banging,” Jack said amiably as he began to drag her out of the room. “Although maybe I’d better leave my hat here.”
“And your braces,” Rose added with a laugh as they pounded down the TARDIS corridors hand in hand. “And your coat. Fact most of your clothes aren’t right for a 21st century bar. You’d probably get beaten up!”
“Ha!” Jack laughed as they emerged into the control room where the Doctor was attending to the central column with something that looked suspiciously like glass cleaner. “I’d like to see them try!”
“You two training for a marathon?” the Doctor raised an eyebrow at their flushed faces. “Mind you don’t trip over and block the corridors if you’re going to be beltin’ around in here all the time.”
“Doctor I wanna go see DriveShaft,” Rose wheedled, bounding up to him eagerly and all but bouncing next to him as she tugged his sleeve. “Please? Pleasepleasepleaseplease?”
“Driveshaft?” the Doctor grinned suddenly even as he stowed the glass cleaner away. “Thought that idiot boyfriend of yours would’ve shown you one by now. He’s a mechanic isn’t he?”
“Hold up - Rose’s boyfriend is a mechanic?” Jack piped up, all agog.
“He’s not my boyfriend and I don’t wanna look at cars,” Rose wrinkled her nose. “I know what a driveshaft is. I meant the band...”
“A terrible band,” Jack chimed in helpfully.
“...and I - shush! - I never got to go and see ‘em cause I was never old enough so can we go and see them? Pleasepleaseplease?”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “When and where?”
“The band split up at the end of 2003 but I dunno where they played. Oh! Except for this one gig that I wasn’t allowed into,” Rose explained hopefully.
“Great,” the Doctor grumbled and turned his attention to the console. “Sometime before 2003 -that really narrows it down.”
After a moment of frosty silence Rose spoke up again falteringly.
“So are we gonna go or...?”
“Yeah if you ever shut up and let me figure out when and where this lot played.”
More silence. Rose caught Jack’s eye uncertainly and then tried to fight back her giggles at his expression.
“DriveShaft,” the Doctor muttered eventually. “What sort of a name is that for a band?”
Rose snorted. “What sort of name is ‘The Doctor’?”
“Ooh!” Jack grinned. “Snap!”
“How about February 3rd 2003. London.” the Doctor said suddenly. “That was just after they released their second album.” Turning to her, his mouth twitching he added, “That isn’t the one you got kicked out of was it?”
Rose flushed. “No that was...that was in 2002.”
“So you were what - sixteen?” as Rose’s blush deepened the Doctor began to chuckle. “No wonder they didn’t let you in! Honestly.”
“I would’ve let you in,” Jack said loyally. “I would’ve snuck you round the back and pretended you were the little sister of one of the band members.”
“What, and gotten the place fined for allowing an underage child onto the premises?” the Doctor scoffed. “Remind me to never hire you as a bouncer - you’d let all the good looking girls in and turn everyone else away.”
“And boys,” Jack corrected him. “Can’t leave any of the pretty boys outside in the cold now can we?”
“S’pose not,” the Doctor said, beginning his usual mad dance around the console. “Well, off we go then!”
And with a crank of a lever the time rotor began to undulate and before Rose quite knew it she was being escorted to the front of the VIP line.
“You’ll fit right in here won’t you?” she tugged on the Doctor’s leather sleeve as they passed a group of leather clad youths.
“No way,” Jack flashed her a toothy grin, all but swaggering his way down the red carpet. More than a few eyes followed him as he went - and not all female either Rose noticed. “He’s way too old for this sort of crowd.”
“Oi!”
“Tickets please,” the bouncer grunted, eyeing them up like a triage of rare steaks.
“Here y’go,” the Doctor said cheerfully, flashing his psychic paper. “Three of us on the paper, three of us here.”
The bounced stared at the paper for a good thirty seconds before grunting again.
“ID?”
The Doctor’s smile wavered. “Do I look like I’m under eighteen?”
“For her,” the bouncer nodded at Rose and she looked indignant.
“Oh no need for ID for her,” the Doctor said cheerfully. “I’m her consenting guardian.”
The bounced glanced at Rose then back at the Doctor. “Don’t look like her dad.”
“Takes after her mother,” the Doctor said baldly, the cheerful grin stretched over his face belying the coiled tension underneath. “Can we go in now please?”
The bouncer eyed him off for another few seconds and then grunted again and let them past.
“What was all that about?” Rose hissed when they were out of earshot. “Consentin’ guardian! What’s Jack then? My bodyguard?”
“Only if you want me to be honey,” Jack winked at her and Rose hit him on the arm.
The Doctor ignored their spat as they made their way inside. “Exclusive event this one,” he said proudly as they pressed their way through the throngs of people who had already arrived. The heavy thudding of the support bands bassist was already thrumming through the speakers, accompanied by the slightly off key whining of the lead singer, the clatter of a drum kit and the scream of an electric guitar. “Pretty small venue for a rock concert - only caters for about eight hundred all up so limited tickets see?”
“I’m going to the bar,” Jack decided, eyes following a gaggle of mini-skirted girls who were headed that way.
“Not on your own you’re not,” the Doctor said putting a firm hand onto Jack’s shoulder. “You get lost in this crowd we’ll never find you again.”
“Aw shucks,” Jack said, batting his eyelashes at the Doctor. “You do care!”
The Doctor shrugged but his large ears were turning pink - a sure fire sign that he was embarrassed.
“Just don’t need anyone getting stuck in the wrong timeline is all. Don’t suppose you got any money on you?” he appealed to Rose. “I think I’m going to need a drink if I’m going to be expected to listen to this sort of music all night.”
“Course I’ve got money,” Rose rolled her eyes for Jack’s benefit as she dug in her back pocket for her crumpled collection of bills. “He’s a bloody cheapskate you know - I always pay for everything.”
“Hey now, it’s hard being a time traveller out of your time,” Jack admonished. “Even worse when it’s a completely different planet.”
By the time they’d shared a packet of salt and vinegar crisps between the three of them and finished their first round of drinks the support band had finished and DriveShaft’s roadies were busily setting up the bands equipment for them.
The opening riff of ‘You All Everybody’ caught Rose by surprise. “Oh!” she said. “I love this song! I’m gonna go dance!”
“You do that,” the Doctor said, unconcernedly knocking back the first draught of his second drink.
Rose frowned at him and then turned appealingly to Jack. “What about you?”
“I might just get another drink too,” he said but just as Rose was getting ready to roll her eyes at the both of them and make a huffy exit, Jack brought his lips close to her ear so the Doctor couldn’t hear. “I’ll see if I can’t get the Doctor to loosen up a bit for you.”
Pulling back, Rose tried not to grin as Jack rejoined the Doctor and slung an overly casual arm around his shoulders. Unfortunately she had more important business to attend to. She pushed through the crowds until she became dazzled by the bright stage lights. From there she moved mainly by touch, sneaking through miniscule gaps between people even as the heavy bass notes rippled through the crowd.
Eventually she managed to squeeze her way down to the second row, getting more than her fair share of bumps and bruises as she went. The mosh pit was already going off, a seething mess of girls in miniskirts and boys in sweat-soaked shirts. Rose suddenly felt quite self-consciously overdressed as she was buffeted to and fro. She hadn’t had a chance to change out of her jeans and Union Jack t-shirt yet. Trying not to let it bother her too much, she joined in singing at the first chorus and did some jumping up and down of her own, waving her arms like a mad thing.
As she did so however, she suddenly felt someone’s eyes on her and she looked up to see the bass player staring avidly at her. He was a young man, probably not much older than Rose really, and his blonde tipped hair was gelled into a look of carefully ruffled casualness. From his denim and leather attire, the thick lines of black surrounding his startling blue eyes and the chipped black nail polish he sported, he looked every part the rock star.
And he was staring right at her.
Rose blushed deeply at the expression on his face before glancing carefully around to see if he was actually looking at someone else. He wasn’t. When she looked up again he caught her eye yet again, and grinned widely before tipping her a huge wink.
Rose grinned back and then waved up at him. The bassist went back to playing with an overzealous amount of gusto and she laughed out loud and danced her way enthusiastically through to the end of the song.
Throughout the rest of the first half of their set the bassist kept his eye on her, grinning when he caught her watching him and toasting her with his water bottle between songs. Rose blushed every time and did her best to keep dancing and singing along. Seemingly encouraged, he played up even more to her which created some raised eyebrows from the rest of the band.
When the band disappeared backstage for a short break between sets, Rose waved goodbye to the bassist (he waved back and grinned again) and then all but skipped back to the bar to find the Doctor and Jack.
Jack it seemed was getting very close to sozzled. He was chattering away animatedly to a small group of enraptured young girls and was surrounded by dozens of empty glasses. The Doctor in comparison seemed very much in control. He was watching Jack with a bemused air and he even grinned at Rose as she joined him.
“Hello,” he said pushing a sweat soaked strand of hair out of her face. “Nice to see you haven’t forgotten about me yet. You having fun?”
“I think the bass player knows me from somewhere,” Rose announced, stealing the Doctor’s drink and taking a pull from it. “Ugh - beer? Didn’t think you were the sort.”
The Doctor scoffed and took it back from her. “Better than some of the other rubbish they serve in human bars. And what d’you mean the bass player knows you?”
“Well I was dancing in front of the stage and then he looked right at me,” Rose explained. “And he had the weirdest expression on his face like...like maybe he’d seen me somewhere before or something. And then we had this...” she paused, feeling strangely giddy. “Moment...”
“Oh a moment?” the Doctor said dryly, taking another pull from his drink. “How lovely for you both.”
“Shut up,” Rose could feel herself blushing again and she toyed with an abandoned coaster that lay on the bar. “Doctor?”
“Mmn?”
“I was thinking maybe...could we go backstage afterwards?”
“S’pose we can,” the Doctor said. “Why? So you can ask him how he knows you?”
“Yeah,” Rose said eagerly and then added hastily. “Well mainly so I can get an autograph for Mickey...”
“S’pose we can,” the Doctor said again then glanced over at Jack. “Should we bring him too? I don’t much fancy having to chase all over London looking for him in the morning. ‘Specially if he’s got a half dozen girls in his bed.”
“Oh go on let him have his fun,” Rose teased. “He nearly got blown up not long ago. Remember?”
“Yeah I remember,” the Doctor retorted. “I saved his life!”
“We saved his life,” Rose corrected. “You never would’ve gone back if I hadn’t asked.”
“Would too.”
“Would not.”
“Would too!”
“You know,” Rose folded her arms across her chest. “For someone who’s nine hundred years old you can be pretty childish when you want to be.”
The Doctor grinned. “It’s a gift.”
Rose grinned back then glanced at Jack. “He’ll be alright by himself for a while yeah?”
The Doctor shrugged and took another sip of his drink. “Probably.”
“Well,” Rose said, slyly offering her hand. “Are you gonna come and enjoy this concert with me or not?”
The Doctor considered her, a barely suppressed smile on his face and then he shook his head, laughed, then took her proffered hand and allowed her to lead him into the crowds of bopping, gyrating bodies.
“Not really my sor’ of crowd,” he leant down to say in her ear as they came to a standstill. “Or my sor’ of music for that matter.”
“Too bad,” Rose turned and slid her hands around his neck, a crafty smile on her face as she began to sway. “Tell you what - you can choose the next place we go.”
“Oh thank god!” the Doctor all but groaned. “This music is terrible.”
PART TWO